One of Rick Segal’s favourite examples about new business ideas is a Blackberry app that would know when you’re in a meeting and silence the alerts and such.  No wonder then that he’d be involved in a startup fund for new Blackberry software:

VentureBeat decided to jump the gun this weekend and post some news that has been floating around lately about a new Blackberry fund. They deleted the post from their blog, but it was still available in Google Reader and in other places and TechCrunch got to it late on Saturday. The new fund is being managed by RBC Ventures, who just last week closed an investment in Toronto-Based Blackberry application Viigo, and JLA Ventures. RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is a limited partner in this fund, but is not involved in the day-to-day investment decisions. The rumor mill has been churning away on this one for months here in Toronto. Originally the numbers we were hearing were $100 million, but as the weeks went by, people started to hint that things had heated up and there were partners involved up to $150 million. That number, $150M, turned out to be true. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » New $150 million Blackberry Fund, based in Canada

VentureBeat earlier broke the news that RIM and other investors, including JLA ventures, have created a $150 million investment fund to back start-ups that work on the Blackberry. Here’s a Q&A with Rick Segal (left), a partner at JLA Ventures, who will invest the fund. We corresponded today by email. The official announcement comes tomorrow. Q&A about the $150M Blackberry Partners Fund » VentureBeat

Your can read the press release about this and the article on Techcrunch–The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon.

Given the new Blackberry that was just announced, I see a ton of new Berry apps coming out to take advantage of the new screen and more powerful connectivity.

Just hope they get to Canada soon.

It’s a busy time here at b5media.  We’re growing, expanding, and gearing up for great stuff.  We got word internally last week that Rachel Segal is joining us at b5 media–word is as a marketing honcho–which is very, very cool.  I waited until Rachel had made this public before I blabbed–good thing I didn’t have to wait long:

b5media - a rapidly growing blog network that I’ve been familiar with for quite some time now. Just a thirty minute walk from my apartment and home to a fantastic crew I’m thrilled and honoured to start working with (notice the ‘u’ - I really am home…). Fortunately for me, I don’t have an international move looming like other startup junkies I know…but I do have some difficult emotions to sort through. Fortunately, I’m running toward something - and that something is an incredibly big opportunity I’m dying to dig into. Source: Debanter » Blog Archive » Back to LA, one last time…for now.

One of the things her dad, Rick Segal, talks about is hiring the best people in your startup to make it shine.  You can’t do everything in your company, you can’t be an expert in everything.  It might have been your idea, you might have used a couple close friends/early employees to get everything done, but to “take it to the next level” you have to find the experts who can help you.

I’ve been reading Rachel’s stuff for a while and I’m excited about working with her.

Boy, I hope she knows what she’s in for, we’re a pretty crazy bunch!

This morning Rick Segal was here for the Victoria VC Roundtable .  One of the things that I really like about Rick is that he is passionate about the companies he invests in, but the thing I like most is that he is unabashedly pro-Canadian.  Rick, like me, is American–I took the leap and became a citizen, but his passion and belief in Canada is probably second to none.  So in honour of Rick, and thoroughly borrowing from him, here are the top ten reasons your tech startup should be in Canada:

1. Canadians are innovative. One word: RIM.
2. Canadians are well educated.  Not only do we have some of the best post-secondary education in tech in the world (PHP was invented by a Finn–I think–who went to Western), our populace is generally well educated (we can find Canada and the US on a map).
3. Canadians are wired and connected. Until recently Canada had the highest per capita adoption of high-speed Internet in the world.  Places like Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa dialup is nearly a thing of the past.
4. Canadians adopt and adapt to new technologies quickly.  The debit card (up here called by its brand name Interac) is overwhelmingly popular, in the States debit cards are still trying to gain traction.
5. Tech savvy VCs.  Okay maybe not all VCs are tech savvy, but folks like JLA, Brightspark, Growthworks are and that’s who you’d be talking to.
6. Rick Segal.  Yeah I’m biased,  but if you listen to him talk about Canada and don’t think we’re the best place to start a tech company, well you must have skipped your morning coffee.
7. The tight-knit tech community.  We might be spread out over the second largest country by land mass in the world, but we try to connect and support each other.
8. Cost-effective.  You might not think so, but it doesn’t cost as much to run a company here.  We have some great tax and other benefits to help you along.
9. Passion and drive.  Canadians might seem all polite and mild-mannered, but don’t let that fool you.  We’re passionate about what we do and we work damn hard to make it work.  Come on have you watched Canadians at a hockey game?
10. Great beer.  Our beer tastes great and has alcohol in it–and that’s the cheap stuff.

Okay, this might be more than a little tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness Canada has probably one of the most underrated tech scenes in the world.  Gotta change that.

These are my reasons … your turn.  Add to the list.

Photo credits: Photo of me, by Lloyd Budd, Photo of Rick Segal by Tris Hussey

Good morning from Victoria…

Although Josh thought I had forgotten about DemoCampVictoria in my last post about Canadian tech events I hadn’t but since it’s next week, now is a good time for a little update.

Checking out the wiki I see the following folks are on the docket to present:

Why DemoCampVictoria was created (Mark Lise)

Fortuno (Jesse and Jason)

Genetify (Andrew)

BountyUp - Social Commerce (Joshua McKenty and Todd Khozein)

DailySplice (Rian)

Flock - the social web browser (Clayton Stark and other flockers)

Songbird (Steven Bengtson and Peter Van Hardenberg) Source: BarCamp wiki / DemoCampVictoria01

I hadn’t checked out Songbird in a long time, but maybe it’s time to finally give it a look.  Flock?  Well, maybe.  Gotta see if I can get a couple extensions to work with it, but if I can–I might.

I my post on March 17 about DemoCampVictoria01, I mentioned that I might have some schwag to bring and, yes there will be schwag.  I have some b5media stickers (a few not a ton), some aideRSS t-shirts and honestly I don’t know what goodies are coming from Toronto from the b5media nerve centre–but I know I’m getting a swanky new b5 t-shirt.

DemoCampVictoria01 is at 5:30 PM, 834 Johnson St. (Juliet Living Demo Space, a.k.a. the OLD peacock billiards place).

Also coming up is the Victoria stop of the VC Roundtable led by Rick Segal.  We’re hosting Rick in the Garden City on April 21st.  It is from 8-10 AM at the Waddling Dog Pub on the Pat Bay Highway (if you’re from here, you know where I’m talking about).

Space is limited to 25 people so sign up now through Eventbrite for the Victoria session.  And thanks to Mark Lise for finding the Waddling Dog as the spot!

I’ve been a tele-worker for over eight years now.  Yeah, a long time.  Since I’ve started I’ve moved from working with one phone line and 33.6 dialup to digital phone and highspeed cable Internet access.  Through it all though, I’ve tried to keep with some basic “rules” like trying not to “work” all the time (I fail at that one often).

If you want some great advice, Rachel Segal has some great points in a recent post:

• It’s *not* working from home.
• Regular work hours are important.
• Take a shower already.
• You can curb feeling isolated.

Source: Debanter » Blog Archive » Telecommuting Misnomers

Her dad, Rick Segal (yes partner at JLA Ventures and b5media’s VC), adds and expands on them with these:

• You rock. 
• Your mantra is Fire and forget.
• Work is a discipline.
• People will forget you and it isn’t personal.

Source: The Post Money Value: One person and the remote, over there office: Your badge of honor

Lots of people think I have a dream job, working from home, and yes, I do.  I get to do what I love (write and help people with tech) and do it without a commute or anything but…yes it is hard.  You do wonder if people have forgotten you.  Skype is my life-line with the rest of the b5 team.  Darren Rowse is my boss, and he is half a world away (luckily we overlap in timezones okay, though it’s “tomorrow” for him).

I do enjoy being able to timeshift a bit, getting up later in the morning (I’m not a morning person anymore) and work later into the night (one and two am blogging sessions are not uncommon), but there is something to be said for “okay I’m going home now…”.

Of course if I need to be away or away from home, work is only a Blackberry or WiFi hotspot away.  Yes, I have taken “days off” where I snuck some work in…

One of my best buds at b5 is Content Manager Christina (CJ) Jones and she left this comment on Rick’s post:

Rick - I have to say, as a remote worker, you and Rachel have it exactly right. So many people tell me how lucky I am to be able to work at home, and I sure am - but no one that doesn’t do it (including my own family) realizes how much extra stress it adds. Your #1 and #4 are the things I struggle with the most. It definitely can a head game at times, and often it is totally mentally exhausting to have to work so hard to be “in the loop.” But I love every minute of it, I wouldn’t trade anything for the opportunities I have had.

If you’re looking for advice, the biggest thing I can say is to use technology to its fullest.  IM, web-based collaboration tools, email, these are your best friends.  Phone?  I don’t use it all that often.  Skype does a lot of the heavy lifting for voice stuff.  And if you’re the kind of person who would rather watch TV than work, this isn’t for you.  I don’t have a “no TV” rule when I’m working, because it can be good background noise, but I do make sure I don’t take a “TV break”.

Naps?  Naps are key.  This is also known as “lunch hour” for me.  Remembering to get up off my tush to take a break, that’s a hard one, but I’m trying.  Now that the weather is better, maybe I’ll finally get a bike and start a habit of working from a cafe or something for fun.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my tush is telling me that I’ve been sitting a wee too long.

Rick Segal of JLA Ventures (JLA Ventures is one of the founders of b5media) is starting his Canadian tour of VC Roundtables starting in Eastern Canada:

April 14th Morning - Halifax NS

April 14th Evening - Moncton NB

April 15th Evening - St John’s NF

Here are the ground rules/information for entrepreneurs who would like to present ideas:

About 2 1/2- 3 hours in length

Informal/Free (super important!)

Small Groups (super important!)

Information on VC/Angels and the process.

Sample Term sheets, documents, business plans, PowerPoints

Example Pitch or Pitches to show what’s interesting/good/bad

Open questions for a good chunk of time. Source: The Post Money Value: VC Roundtable - Block One

Can’t wait until he makes it out here to Western Canada (Victoria, specifically).  Rick is an awesome guy and I’ve always been flattered that he knew who I was over two years ago at the first MESH conference.  Since then I’ve been able to chat with Rick occasionally, and yeah, he gets it.

Rick says on his blog that to sign up all you need to do is to email rick at jlaventures dot com with the word roundtable in the subject line.

Hey Rick, need a roadie?

Hat tip to Jevon at StartupNorth

What’s hot in Canadian tech?  Yeah, a lot, but how can you learn about all the great stuff going on?  At the end of April I think you’ll have your chance to see what’s hot now and what will be hot soon at the Canadian Innovation Exchange in Toronto:

The inaugural Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) is on the calender for April 29 & 30th at the Carlu in Toronto and promises to focus on innovation. The two-day event will feature an innovation marketplace, flash-forward presentations on the state of technology, and facilitated networking opportunities. Key participants from the US and across Canada have been invited and confirmed attendees include: Mark Skapinker of Brightspark, Barry Gekiere of Ventures West, Bryan Kerdman of EdgeStone Capital Partners, Steve Hnatiuk of Yaletown Venture Partners, and Rick Segal of JLA Ventures. Source: Canadian Innovation Exchange

Okay, yeah our two primary VCs are going to be there.  So of course I have to give them props, but really we need more of these events and not just in Toronto.  We need one in Montreal and Vancouver as well.

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  You need to be around innovation.  You need to be exposed to new ideas and exciting people.  Doesn’t matter what you do or where your passion lies, you need to always challenge yourself.  Push the boundaries.  Expose yourself to new and challenging ideas.  Even ideas that seem contrary to what you think is right. often those lead to insights and inspirations you couldn’t see before.

What’s stopping you from innovating?  Is it you?

You should know, of course, that JLA Ventures is one of b5media’s VC backers (the other is Brightspark).  Now I read Rick Segal not just cause he’s our VC, I was reading him long before that, I read him to get insight into venture capital and entrepreneurship.

This recent post, which I don’t think Rick’s mind is spooky at all–messy, well, who am I to talk, Rick outlines some insights that I think entrepreneurs who are looking for VC funding should read:

There are two ways to answer this. First, is the obvious answer: All things coming in the door are evaluated on their own merits.  The second is really an expanded answer to the first one so here goes.

Tons of VCs will tell you that getting a referral is the fastest/easiest way to get into a VC’s office to make that first pitch.  I suspect with the massively large players, this is probably true. They see 1000s of deals every day, field 100s of calls, 100s of emails, etc, so getting to the top of that list will not be a cake walk.

For me and the spooky place called my mind/space/time, there is somewhat of an unofficial process that I use. Source: The Post Money Value: Inside the (messy and spooky) VC Mind

If you have read his post by now, I’m not offended if you open it in a tab, read it and come back here, you should probably be thinking “yeah that makes sense”.

The key for me is: Solve a problem.

No, don’t create a solution waiting for a problem.  Look at what people need now and figure out a better or new way to solve it.

Take RSS.  Both FeedHub and aideRSS are working to solve a problem–info overload.  It’s something I suffer from all the freakin’ time.

Think about it.  What isn’t working.  What could be better.  Now, can you make it better?

Start there.

Then talk to Rick.